Behavior Driven Development for Tests and Verification

Abstract

Nowadays, hardware is usually tested and verified at postdesign time. The bottom line is that more effort is spend in the validation phases than in the implementation, because it is harder to fix bugs in later design stages than during the implementation of the design. In contrast, test-first approaches such as test driven development (TDD) have become increasingly important for software development. Behavior driven development (BDD) extends TDD by using natural language style scenarios to describe tests. But both approaches miss formal verification methods which are very important in hardware design. This research project presents a new approach based on BDD that combines testing and verification seamlessly.

This work was supported by the Graduate School SyDe, funded by the German Excellence Initiative within the University of Bremen’s institutional strategy.